If your build isn't coming to life till next year, do the smart thing and wait patiently for some rather important events to unfold. I too need a new system but I'm not in a rush.
> December 13th - HD6950, 6970 and 6990 release. This will be the last release of the 6xxx series from ATI There is good a possibility their release will drive down the prices of the other cards...and even force NVidia to drop their prices (as they have done before) to compete with ATI's affordability.
> "Pre-christmas" - Possibly the unveiling of the more affordable GTX560 and 570, which could cause more changes in overall pricing of other cards.
> Q1 2011 - AMD and Intel launch sockets AM3+ and LGA1155/2011 respectively.
I'm not too interested in new cpu sockets....so by the end of December my new beast that'll carry me through 2011-2013 should be ready